My Long Goodbye

"My Long Goodbye"

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“Whoa, I'm still not ready to do this. It's gonna be weird not having you by my side everyday; making fun of the doctors, going on about Jesus. Man, I hope he's real or you're gonna be piiiissed. Remember my first day, when that patient came in and started bleeding out on me, and I was so shocked I could barely move. But you stood by my side, and you guided me through it. And then you did the most amazing thing of all, you made me laugh. For the last 15 years you've been my role model, but most of all you've been my friend. And I don't know what else to say but I'm gonna really really miss you [kisses her cheek]. Goodbye.”— Carla to Laverne

Contents

Nurse Laverne Roberts is still in a non-responsive coma due to injuries she sustained in a car accident the previous day. The staff and Laverne's family worry she will never wake up.

Eventually, some members of staff start saying goodbye to her, but Carla tells everyone not to say goodbye, because she still hopes for Laverne to pull through. This strong sense of denial, coupled with being unable to accept Laverne will most likely die, causes her to see Laverne's disembodied spirit.

The whole staff is heart-broken when Laverne's latest CAT scans arrive: she's brain dead. Laverne's family decides to take her off life-support, and one-by-one the main characters say their own goodbyes to Laverne as she weakens. Carla, in the end, learns from Laverne's spirit that she must say goodbye to the people she cares for before she loses her chance, and says her own tearful goodbye to Laverne. As Carla walks out of the room and collapses in tears in Turk's arms, Laverne flatlines and her spirit passes away.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cox confides in J.D. that he doesn't want people to know of his daughter's birth because it will be associated with Laverne's death, but still tells Jordan that he has told others. Jordan becomes suspicious because no one has come to congratulate her other than J.D. Even when Laverne passes away, Jordan still does not get admirers, and in desperation she declares J.D. the child's godfather and agrees to name her baby Jennifer Dylan (J.D.).

Everyone except J.D. goes to the bar to suppress their grief and toast Laverne.

Sacred Heart has a robot that delivers bad news, named "bad news robot", however it breaks down and has to be treated in Sacred Heart, and when the robot's family comes to visit, they vaporize J.D. out of anger.

To keep Jordan occupied J.D. does a shadow puppet dog, and when Jordan accuses it of being lame, he calls in a group of doctors to assist him in performing a shadow-puppet reenactment of Pearl Harbor - which works well, until Ted includes a crocodile in the reenactment.

“Hi Dr. Cox. I got pregnant in Heaven, who knew that could happen?!”— Jill Tracy's ghost

“She once told me I would have a happy life. And she said it with a straight face.”— Ted

“Listen Doc, we're not comfortable letting people see our emotional moments, so if you could just turn around for a second that would be great.”— Dr. Cox

[Dr. Matthews turns around.]

[Cox and Jordan fist bump.]

“Y'know Laverne, if this were a horror flick I'd be so scared that I was next. They always kill the black folks off first. Now, I'm not really worried about it 'cos there's still Snoop Dogg Resident and Leonard the Security guard...y'know when you think about it, this is a white-ass hospital.”— Turk

We find out in this episode that Dr. Kelso has slept with Laverne. However, it is unknown if this is true, as Laverne was a Born-Again Christian who was against sex before marriage and Carla was imagining Laverne saying it.

Janitor wanted to be the lifeguard at Laverne's mysterious above ground pool party, it is implied that he had something to do with her dog's death.

Dr. Cox shaves his head. Episode "My Night to Remember" was meant to follow this episode - hence why he also has no hair in that episode.

Bill Lawrence said that Laverne's death was to be the end of Scrubs unless it was renewed for a new season. Scrubs was renewed and when Sammy, J.D's son, is born you see Nurse Shirley, played by Aloma Wright.

Carla asks Dr. Cox if a memory of someone had ever follow him around like a ghost, to which he replied “Well no, but then again, I’m a sane person.” This however did happen in "My Screw Up".

During Carla's "goodbye", a tear can be seen in Laverne's right eye, likely a very emotional moment for Aloma Wright.

Elliot's "superpower" to always know when a baby has been born somehow contradicts how she initially felt about children, particularly in My Best Moment. However, it could be because after getting her life together (new job, new house and Keith) she began preparing for having children.